Category: Embroidery

In my last post I talked about how helpful making friendship bracelets has been for re-igniting my creativity after a block. I often find making simple, more “crafty” things that give me great joy easily lead into other concepts that expand my creative arsenal. In this instance the bracelets gave me a great opportunity to explore how the DMC variegated line could work up. I have very quickly become obsessed with working in these threads as they allows you to cheat easily create spontaneous texture and color shifts in your work. I’m not thrilled, however, at the limited range of colors in the DMC line and the one-tone-per-skein approach to variegation. Note: DMC does have a line of multi-color variegated thread as well, but unless your work calls for those specific hues you’re going to find that line limited as well.

As a result I’ve spent the last few weeks exploring how DMC Cotton thread can be dyed and manipulated to create custom variegated blends with supercalifragilisticexpialidocious solid results. Today I want to share what products I use to make these blends, how I go about doing it, and what you can do to get different effects in the process.

Missed posting any Halloween stuff this year again, whoops. Funnily enough it’s probably my favorite holiday and time of year, which is I think why I never post anything.

I’m happy and busy for once in my life and I don’t need the internet for a few days. What a trip.

But alas my favorite month has passed and I settle now into cozy winter-time preparation. A big part of what I want to work on this winter is to finish up all the random cross-stitch projects I started but never completed. You can find a master post that includes a lot of these here, but I have even more unfinished things than that.

They say don’t start what you can’t finish. I say don’t start what you can’t hide in a drawer for 2 years and break out later in a fit of guilt.

The first big thing I wanted to finish was the Epic Pokemon Pattern Gen I. I sort of began to loathe lose respect for Pokemon after the whole Pokemon Go idiocy phenomena and so let this pattern simmer away for awhile, but the first generation of these little nuggets was a huge part of my childhood and the pattern is really fun to stitch up.

The problem, as anyone who has attempted this project can tell you, is that it is really big and has a butt-load of colors. As a result, I could never really get in the groove with it and hated working on it. A lot of this kind of work fatigue can be solved with organization and a really good frame. A good large-scale stitching set up should allow you to have everything at your fingertips and should put no stress on your neck, back, and shoulders.

I wanted to make a “My Neck, My Back” joke there so bad but this is a nice blog for nice people so I didn’t.

I’ve tried loads of frames and, as in my previous post about thread holders, found none of them really did the job right. I have a lot of back problems and found none of them allowed me to work more than an hour or two without severe pain. When I saw this video by the incredibly strong and talented Dana Batho of Peacock & Fig I knew immediately it was the solution to my problems. Because of a back injury sustained while in the Canadian Armed Service she requires a very comfortable set up with all her resources either on or directly near her frame. With loads of wood and parts left over from all the other frames I have, I figured I could Macgyver something like her frame that would work for me!

As you can see I started with a variety of lengths of wood, many luckily with perfect pre-drilled holes, and an absolutely beautiful scroll frame you can get on Amazon here. I had the help of my wonderful and wood-talented boyfriend as well who cut two dowels to use for cross supports and also drilled additional holes. For the record I CAN use power tools despite all evidence to the contrary, but I’m not super comfortable using them outside a shop. Obviously the Boy gives no shits in that regard, so I make him do it. What a good boog.

Together we designed the piece to allow for a variety of positions and easy disassembly since we live in a very small apartment with limited storage. The entire frame is assembled using nuts, bolts, and drill holes; the only part that was drilled in permanently were the round dowels into the uprights.

We made cross-bar legs for the front and back, with the front being about half the length of the back. This allows the frame to have a nice angle when resting on your thighs in a reclined position. So far it’s worked great on the couch, the bed, or our velvet chair. Plus, you can hang all your scissors and tools off the frame just like Dana from Peacock & Fig. I’m a happy nugget indeed.

Excuse the bad lighting – by the time I stretched it all perfect and adjusted all the angles it was after sunfall.

There you have it – a custom frame in one day! This wasn’t technically the cheapest project – the frame itself cost about $40 and it used parts from two other expensive stands I didn’t like – but you could easily make one of these to fit your frame for under $10 worth of hardware supplies. With a commercial lap frame this size running anywhere from $50 – $150 dollars I’m still pretty happy with the result. By moving which holes the legs are attached to I can easily change the angle of my stitching depending on how I’d like to sit – it can even work very well as a table stand in my kitchen.

And that’s it! I can draw up a detailed diagram of our design if it’s helpful, but it’s really self-explanatory. Sit with your frame and determine how you’d like it to angle towards you, then you can make your frame fit your body flawlessly and stitch the night away.

I’m not really the one to post all sorts of silly updates, especially on a project loads of people have done already, but I will post the finished product when this is done. Stay tuned for more DIY organization and tips and other updates on my artwork. I also did make an awesome costume this year, but I’m going to post that as part of a different launch that will happen sometime in the near future. Stay tuned for that, and remember –

Yep. I haven’t posted for over a year. Never got around to posting about how Operation: Apartment worked out and now we’re probably going to change everything again. Never posted the finished versions of loads of projects, in fact never finished most of those projects.

What the heck happened?

Let’s just say that the transition from college student to full-on-adult is a lot harder then anyone ever gets around to telling you when you are young. I might make a post about that in the future if anyone wants to hear it, but who really cares about that shit.

It’s been awhile since I posted like always because I’ve been working on a ton of personal projects. I have an awesome full time position as an Assistant, but my real passion has always been fiber art. Though I dabble in weaving and knitting, I work primarily in cross-stitch and embroidery. I feel like these forms are almost akin to painting with thread, and match my artistic sensibilities the best as a result of their varied applications.

I use primarily DMC cotton and like to have as much of the collection together as possible so I can start any project at a moment’s notice. This requires less storage and clutter than you may think, as long as you implement a good system. I’m going to share with you how I organize all my threads and other embroidery supplies, and hopefully inspire some organization in your own collection!

With this blog and with my work in general, I’ve continuously tried to show the connection between hand-craft and art. While the impetus and the ultimate goal of the creator can be different, the individual sense of expression and translation of emotion remains the same between the two disciplines. Ultimately it is this quality – the reflection of life’s circumstances into physical works – that leads to things I find appealing and filled with substance. As a result of this, when I find an artist who not only uses traditional craft methods in their work, but also uses their creations as a jumping board for individual exploration, I instantly fall in love with their work. Nava Lubelski is one such artist who has received an impressive amount of recognition, proving that I’m not the only one who values these qualities.